Career numbers were up for grabs and the UCI released the Elite Career Numbers for the next Olympic Cycle for 2022 – 2024. For more information, Fifteen BMX did an awesome breakdown of the system of what it all means. Numbers are significant and in today’s case, a touching tribute was made by Australian BMX racer Saya Sakakibara who took #77, in honor of her brother Kai Sakakibara who suffered a life-changing accident on Feb 8, 2020. In a recent post, Saya expressed her admiration for how far her brother has come since:
“2 years since hitting rock bottom. Starting from scratch, countless hours of intensive rehabilitation and hard work. Every day, I’m blown away by @sakakibarakai ‘s work ethic. When I spent 3 months back home after the Olympics, I couldn’t believe how full his schedule is, fitting in all of his therapy sessions as well as homework, gym, Zwift rides, stretching, and journaling. He also has small projects to work on on the side including writing reports in Japanese. And the thing is, NO ONE tells him to do any of that. He is the driving force. From the moment he wakes up, to the moment he goes to sleep, everything has to be scheduled in order to complete all his tasks. I thought that wasn’t healthy and he needed to rest more. But actually, this is what makes Kai tick. He has always been so focused, and even if it seemed unnecessary to us, if he found value in it, he would do it. Always with 100%. 2 years ago, his life changed forever. He was once doing what he loved and now, he had to change course, to do rehab exercises. But not a word of complaint. EVER. And that is truly something remarkable and shows his determined character, his strength to push through the doubts in his head and just to keep going. No matter what. I’ve always admired that in him BMX and now in achieving so much in a different direction. I don’t expect anything but the best from Kai and that will always be consistent. I’m proud of what you’ve achieved so far Kai and I can’t wait to see what you accomplish in year 3, I’ll be your biggest cheerleader.”
Fans of the Sakakibara duo should also check out their merch section.
